Archives for the month of: April, 2018
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Peter Greene on Arne Duncan’s April Fools Day Joke

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
13

Peter Greene does his very best close reading of Arne Duncan’s bizarre article in The Washington Post in which he insists that his policies have NOT failed, contrary to the evidence and public opinion.

He begins:

Lately, a wave of apostasy has swept through Reformsylvania, and reformsters have stepped up to say that ed reform kind of, well, failed. Yesterday, just in time for April Fools Day, former secretary of education Arne Duncan (and current thinky tank fixture) took to the pages of the Washington Postto try his hand at some non-reality-based history and argue that ed reform has been a resounding success.

How has he managed this feat? Well, there are several tricks.

This damn guy

First, move the goalposts. All the way back to 1971. Fourth grade math and reading scores on the NAEP are up since then!! Why focus on fourth grade scores? Maybe because 17-year-old scores haven’t really moved much at all. And of course, reform hasn’t been in place since 1971– and most of that growth happened before modern ed reform ever took hold– you know, prior to those days when Secretary Duncan was explaining that American schools actually sucked? And all of this assumes that a single standardized math a reading score is a good proxy for the quality of the entire educational system.

Duncan has an explanation for those flat 12th grade scores– because the graduation rate is up, more weak students are taking the NAEP, and so keeping the scores flat is a win. Yay? Anyway, graduation rates are up, so that’s more proof of ed reform success, except that, of course, whether those diplomas actually mean anything other than districts have learned how to game the system with credit recovery and other baloney– well, never mind. There’s probably some real gain there, and that’s not a bad thing. The numbers are up, so woohoo…

[His] notion that test-based accountability “revealed” achievement gaps is baloney. Educators knew where the gaps were. We’ve4 always known where the gaps were. We’ve screamed about the gaps. I don’t believe any teacher in this country picked up test results and said, “I’ll be damned! I had no idea these non-white, non-wealthy students were having trouble keeping up!” At best, test-based accountability was a tool to convince policy makers who would listen to data spreadsheets before they would listen to teachers. And even then, policy makers didn’t look at the data and say, “Well, we’d better help these schools out.” Instead, all the way up to Duncan’s office, they responded with, “Well, let’s target this school for closure or conversion or a growth opportunity for some charter operators.”

This, it turns out, is another thing Arne “Katrina’s Destruction of NOLA Public Ed Is a Great Thing” Duncan counts as success- three million students in charter school. He cites Boston as a win (again, debateable) but ignores the widespread fraud, corruption and failure that charters have been prone to nationally…

Duncan has tried a variety of history rewrites for his administration (only politicians hated Common Core! charter school magic unleashed! ESSA was not a reaction against his work! CCSS should have been rolled out faster!) But all of his reflections stumble over the same problem– Duncan simply refuses to acknowledge the damage that his policies have done to public education. Here he is acting puzzled again–

[Duncan wrote:] Some have taken the original idea of school choice — as laboratories of innovation that would help all schools improve — and used it to defund education, weaken unions and allow public dollars to fund private schools without accountability.

No, Arne! Not “some.” Not some faceless mysterious group of folks. You. You and the people that you empowered and encouraged and cheered on and backed with your policies. You did that.

Well, as we have come to expect, Peter is right on target.

Charter schools are the gateway to vouchers. It is now widely understood that Arne Duncan and his friends paved the way for Betsy DeVos and her all-out war on  public schools. That is now widely recognized, even if Duncan doesn’t admit it.

Reform is failing, failing, failing. The public is wise to the reformers’ real goal, which is to privatize public schools and disparage teachers instead of confronting the real issues of poverty and segregation.

And nothing that Arne writes here changes that fact.

 

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Privatization, Testing

Arne Duncan: American Schools Are the Worst–No, the Best–Ever

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
11

 

For his entire seven years as Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan repeated the mantra that American public schools were the worst ever. They were falling behind the global competition, they needed radical change, they needed privatization, they needed radical transformation. He thought that the remedies were testing, more testing, high-stakes testing, charter schools, and technology. Now he works for Laurene Powell Jobs at the Emerson Collective, where he is supposedly re-imagining the American high school, or something like that.

Having listened to his daily rants about failure for so long, it is startling to see his opinion piece in the Washington Post declaring that American schools are definitely on the right track because they have followed the advice of “reformers” like himself. He claims credit for every gain in test scores and graduation rate since 1971! Even though he was only 7 years old in 1971.

The funny thing is that I used many of the same data in my book “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, to refute the claims of Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Eli Broad, Bill Gates, and the rest of the corporate reform wrecking crew, who insisted that America’s public schools were failing and obsolete. Their favorite word was failing.

Now, Arne doesn’t admit that he was wrong, but instead he claims credit for everything good.

No mention of the D.C. graduation rate scandal or the spread of credit recovery, which enables students to take an online course for a week and get credit for a semester that they failed. No mention of cheating scandals. No mention of the 2015 flatlining of NAEP scores.

But, you see what is really happening is that all the reforms he championed have made no difference at all. They are failing. There is not a single district controlled by reformers that is a shining example of success. The shine is off New Orleans, where most of the charters are rated C, D, or F. The District of Columbia has been firmly in the grip of “reformers” and we now know that most of its claims are illusory. Rick Hess, one of the chief reformers, chastised his fellow “reformers” that they had refused to recognize the D.C. realities and spun a tale of success out of their own fantasies.

Teachers and parents hate the high-stakes testing, and school officials are bullying them into taking the mandated tests.

But go back to 1971, and it is clear that we have made great progress. It is just clear that Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates, and Eli Broad had nothing to do with it.

Let’s credit the successes of our teachers and principals, our democratically controlled public schools.

The real struggle is not to double down on failed strategies but to protect our public schools from the rapacious grasp of privateers and profiteers.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Resistance, Testing

Wave of Wildcat Teachers’ Strikes in Kentucky and Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
19

Wave of Teachers’ Strikes: Kentucky and Oklahoma — Interviews Available [On Twitter]

  Currently in Oklahoma, Elk is the senior labor reporter at Payday Report and just wrote the piece “Wave of teachers’ wildcat strikes spreads to Oklahoma and Kentucky” for the Guardian.
He writes: “On Friday, teachers in Kentucky went out on illegal wildcat strikes in more than 25 counties against the wishes of union leaders to protest against draconian changes to the state’s … pension plans. …

“While Oklahoma has the country’s lowest tax on oil and natural gas production, teachers’ salaries remain stubbornly low, at 49th in the nation.

“The strikers have been buoyed by a successful strike by their peers in West Virginia, their first statewide work stoppage since 1990, which ended with them winning a 5 percent pay rise and other concessions.”
TAMMY BERLIN, (502) 797-2638, tammy.berlin@jcta.org
Berlin is vice president of the the Jefferson County Teachers Association in Kentucky. She said today: “We thought we killed this ‘reform’ bill twice and then they attached some of it to a sewage bill, appropriately enough. They passed it in record time from committee to both houses. That was done illegally, they didn’t have the required actuarial analysis — so there will be legal changes. Today is the last day of the session and they’re trying to pass a budget. We want them to fund education by closing loopholes. There’s a strong push to give money to charter schools even though they don’t have the funding for that. … We don’t want a regressive tax. Teachers will be meeting in Louisville beginning Wednesday.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 421-6858, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

April 2, 2018

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org

Categories Kentucky, Oklahoma, Resistance, Teachers

Mercedes Schneider: John White Is Nervous about NAEP Scores

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
14

 

NAEP scores will be released April 18. They have already been released to state Superintendents so they can study their state’s scores and get their press release ready.

The 2015 scores were flat. Some states saw declines. This was widely viewed as a rebuke of the test-obsessed federal policies of the previous 15 years. Intensive test prep produced gains, but they had come to a halt.

Mercedes Schneider writes that Louisiana John White is already worried and has sent out a pre-emptive letter complaining that the scores may have been pushed down by NAEP’s switch to online testing.  This is not a statement by a man who is looking forward to the score release. He is already making excuses.

White, a Broadie who got his start in TFA, has promised dramatic improvements. He has promoted charters and vouchers. He has hailed the New Orleans “miracle.”

We watch for the NAEP release.

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Louisiana, NAEP, Testing

Laura Chapman: Who Cares About Arts Education?

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
16

Laura Chapman wrote the following comment. Her last line reminded me of studies conducted over a century ago by bean counters who were efficiency experts in education. They decided they could decipher the exact cost of each study and its return on investment. By their measure, Latin was a complete waste of time because it cost too much and returned nothing they could measure. If you want to learn more, read my book Left Back: A Century of Failed Education Reforms.

 

Laura Chapman writes:

 

Is formal education in music needed? Does anyone who is not deeply connected to any one of the many varieties of the arts care?

I look at this conversation as an occasion to offer a brief report on arts education in this nation’s schools.

National data on arts education in public schools is scant and often contradictory, especially at the high school level where graduation credits may seem to be required, but are nested with eight or ten other options. Here is the latest on state policies.
17 States specify arts education as a requirement for schools to be accredited-
19 States require state-, district- or school-level assessment of student learning in the arts
20 States provide funding for an arts education grant program or a state-funded school for the arts
26 States include arts courses as an option to fulfill graduation requirements
29 States define the arts in statute or code as a core or academic subject-
44 States require course credits in the arts for high school graduation
45 States require districts or schools to offer arts instruction at the elementary school level
45 States require districts or schools to offer arts instruction at the middle school level
45 States require districts or schools to offer arts instruction at the high school level
49 States have adopted early childhood or prekindergarten arts education standards
50 States have adopted elementary and/or secondary arts education standards
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab2_18.asp

There is a national test in the arts, sort of, now and then. Curious? Some 8th grade questions from the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts are available online. These assessments have been administered about once a decade since the 1970s, but not in a manner that offers information about trends.

The most recent NAEP tests have been limited to grade 8 where many students are not enrolled in art. The tests are also limited to visual arts and music. Theater and dance are infrequently offered and also have been judged too expensive to assess. Of all the data gathered by the NAEP testing, the most interesting comes from the background questions included in the booklets. You can see these questions here https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/field_pubs/sqb/pdf/2016_sqb_g8_a.pdf

If you are interested in the most recent results from “the Nation’s Art Report Card” see https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/arts_2016/ (As usual SES has a bearing on access to arts education).

In prior NAEP assessments, I found that a majority of the nation’s students had no arts education in schools beyond the 7th grade, usually a half-year or less with a certified art teacher. In addition, the less opportunity for arts education in schools the more likely that community arts organizations try to offer grants-based programs for school-age groups. These programs are usually short-term gigs with artists visiting schools, or programs offered after school, weekends, and during the summer (e.g., art camps).

Although some of these community grants come from local foundations, a mainstay since 1965 has been a flow of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts to state arts agencies where underemployed artists may list themselves as available for a program in schools. It is a mistake to think that such programs are free to schools. The arts council usually picks up the fees charged by artists who enter schools in some capacity as “educators.” Almost always, schools must provide all program-related materials and supplies (e.g., if a mosaic or mural artist works in the school, the materials and support needed must be funded by the school). In Ohio, an “artists residency” can be for 36 weeks. This means a residency can be used as an alternative to hiring a certified arts teacher. http://www.oac.ohio.gov/News-Events/OAC-News/ArticleId/76/new-arts-learning-grant-program

The bean counters are a work on figuring out the per-student cost of teaching every subject at every grade level, and some of the “extracurricular activities” in many schools. If you can stand it, one example of that reasoning is here. The reasoning leads to the conclusion that money can be saved by doubling up on class sizes, offer courses online, and just outsourcing education–with music one example. https://www.crpe.org/publications/breaking-down-school-budgets-following-dollars-classroom

Categories Arts Education

Detroit: Unexplained Firings at Charter School Rattle Teachers, Students

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
11

 

Old Redford Academy high school, a charter school in Detroit, suddenly fired several staff members, some of whom were “veterans” (i.e., more than one year of experience), without explanation.

The orders came from corporate management, Advanced Educational Staffing. Students wondered how they would earn enough credits to graduate.

Advanced Educational Staffing is a for-profit charter operator. Many of those who have worked there give negative reviews to the corporation and say that the main focus is computer-based standardized testing.

 

The school, part of a chain, is a low-performing charter. Charters in Michigan do not have to meet accountability standards.

Turmoil, chaos, disruption. It is Michigan, after all, the wholly owned state of Betsy DeVos and her family.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Michigan, Privatization

The Failure of Mayoral Control in D.C. (and Everywhere Else)

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
14

 

Peter McPherson writes here about the failure of mayoral control in the District of Columbia. He recites the promises made by its proponents, and the turmoil and scandal and absence of accountability that has followed.

Reformers don’t like democratic control of public schools. They prefer top-down control, by a mayor or a governor or a commission beyond the reach of the voters. The mayor or governor listen to elites, not to those who are most engaged in the schools, especially parents and local communities.

But, writes McPherson, mayoral control does not improve schools. He agrees that the modernization of school buildings has been a success but it was not necessary to eliminate the elected school board to accomplish that goal.

In those 10 years, has a school system controlled by the mayor and administered by the executive’s chosen instrument, the chancellor, been transformed into a gleaming educational edifice of quality and broad academic achievement?

Not really.

The level of turnover and attrition among DCPS teachers has been far higherthan national norms. The same is true of DCPS administrators. DCPS has fewer students than it did 10 years ago. In school year 2006-07, DCPS had 52,645 students and DC charter schools 19,733, with DCPS having almost 73% of students. In the 2017-18 school year, despite growth in the school-age population of the city, DCPS has 47,982 students and DC charters schools 43,340. Alongside the decrease in absolute numbers of students, DCPS’s share of students has declined to a little over half citywide.

Such declines are not evidence of success.

Under mayoral control and like DC’s charter schools, DCPS has judged its progress using statistical measures of student test taking, such as the DC-CAS and PARCC. Sadly, all of DC’s publicly funded schools have shown only modest gains on these tests, while the achievement gap between white and African American students has widened–and while in the wake of a 2012 cheating scandal, it has become clear that many recent DCPS graduates were not, in fact, eligible to graduate.

(There is no independent analysis of what is occurring in DC charter schools regarding meeting standards for graduation.)

In the meantime, DCPS’s pedagogic innovations, like student performance-based teacher evaluations, have been clung to like life preservers in the freezing North Atlantic, with the belief that they alone would save the day..

This governance model allows those running DCPS to act both quickly and unilaterally. In the end, there could be little surprise that former Mayor Adrian Fenty chose Michelle Rhee as chancellor. He installed someone who was indifferent to what a large swath of stakeholders felt, operating like a zealot and atomizing the old order as she went. In her drive to close schools, Rhee was clearly indifferent to the input of affected communities and the negative effects of those closures, which continue to the present day.

Charter schools are booming, because those with money and power get what they want.

This is a governance system with no public oversight or accountability. It has failed.

The same could be said for mayoral control in Cleveland, New York City, and Chicago.

Mayors should have a role because they control the budget. But the people who enroll their children in the schools should have a large role also. The mayor is not uniquely qualified to run the schools or to choose the best person to run the schools.

Democracy may be inefficient, but it is far better as a governance system than one-man or one-woman rule.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Democracy, District of Columbia

Florida: Legislators’ Wives Are Opening Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
13

 

Florida is a state that apparently does not prohibit nepotism or conflicts of interest when it comes to charter schools.

The League of Women Voters in Florida studied charters and documented financial links between charter schools and legislators. 

The Miami Herald recognized years ago that Florida was creating a dual school system, and that the charters were fleecing taxpayers with little oversight or accountability.

The Miami Herald wrote about the most recent examples of family members of legislators cashing in.

”Though far removed geographically from each other, two new Florida charter schools share an uncommon feature: They both have a board member who is married to a state lawmaker heavily involved in crafting state policy on charter schools.

“Anne Corcoran, the founder of a charter school in Pasco County, is assisting with a new Tallahassee school. She’s married to Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes.

“Erika Donalds, the founder of a charter school in Collier County, is leading the effort to open a new Martin County school. Her husband is Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, who shepherded Speaker Corcoran’s bill on vouchers for bullied students in the House.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article207320264.html#storylink=cpy

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Florida, Fraud, Privatization

Mike Klonsky Remembers Deborah Gist, Broadie

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2018 //
24

 

Mike Klonsky remembers Deborah Gist. I do too. http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2018/04/remember-deborah-gist.html

Gist is currently Superintendent in Tulsa. She was quoted sympathetically in the Washington Post yesterday, expressing solidarity with the teachers of Oklahoma.

In 2010, Gist was Commissioner of Education in Rhode Island. She backed the superintendent of tiny and impoverished Central Falls, who wanted to fire the entire staff of the high school because of low scores. Arne Duncan saluted Gist for her courage in pushing the massfiring of every adult in the school. President Obama echoed Duncan. TIME magazine hailed Hist as one of the nation’s leading educators, all because of her desire to clean out the staff at Central Falls.

I had my own run-in with her. Gist wanted to bring charter schools to Rhode Island. The then-Governor said he wanted to meet with me before making a decision. I came to Providence to lecture at one of the local universities and had an hour on the Governor’s calendar for a private conversation. Gist insisted on sitting in on the meeting. We never had a private conversation.

The teachers in Rhode Island were outraged by the treatment of their colleagues at Central Falls. She was no friend of teachers then.

Has she had a change of heart?

 

Categories Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tulsa

BREAKING NEWS! Teacher Celebration in Oklahoma!! April Fools Day.

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2018 //
16

 

John Thompson, a teacher and historian in Oklahoma, has a news flash!

 

The massive Oklahoma Teacher Walkout and Capitol Rally is scheduled for 10:30am Monday, but due to a last minute settlement, it will now be a victory lap. Thousands of teachers will still be coming from across the state. However, an agreement reached during a couple of secret meetings at the Devon Energy Tower and the Chesapeake Energy Corporation headquarters will transform what had been a black eye for Oklahoma in terms of national press coverage. The state’s international reputation will now be an asset for economic development. The rally has been rebranded as Disruptive Innovation: Okie Style.

No new funding was authorized Saturday night, but a spokesman for oil tycoon Harold Hamm announced a package of reforms, prescribed by the Broad and Walton foundations and Silicon Valley partnerships, that will raise $1 billion per year for cradle to career education. The early education and pre-k to 12 component will be funded through a Pay for Performance bond issue. Education providers will be compensated for the increases in measurable outcomes that they produce. School supplies with bargain basement prices will be purchased through a Walmart/Amazon/GoFundMe collaboration.

Similar saving for higher education will result from a Facebook/Cambridge Analytica personalized learning initiative. Tenure for university professors will no longer be an expensive method for protecting academic freedom because lessons will be fact checked by the Republican National Committee and the Heritage Foundation.

Some may wonder why state employees have maintained such a low profile during the budget crisis, but that is because they will benefit from a venture philanthropy innovation financed by ALEC, and that is the way they roll. It will be a win-win breakthrough. Oklahoma will be the first state to completely privatize its health, welfare, criminal justice, and law enforcement functions. Employees can expect a doubling of take home pay through performance incentives.

Even better, choice will rule. Institutions can sign up for meeting the outcomes that they choose. For instance, prisons can commit to either reducing inmate population and recidivism, or increasing prison population within the same units and budgets, as long as gains are properly documented. Social and health care workers can choose to either improve prenatal care and offer holistic multi-generational, holistic, state-of-the-art services in an aligned manner, or they can coordinate with others to make the cradle to prison pipeline flow more efficiently.

Please keep in mind that pizza, tee shirts, and other swag will be provided to teachers by the EPIC Charter CMO. The hope is that former Sen. Tom Coburn, who returned to the Capitol last week to campaign against taxes, will return as a volunteer handing out the goodies. The best view of the extravaganza will be at the overflow sites for the thousands of rally participants seeking to avoid the traffic. All downtown hotels that receive Tax Incentive Financing (TIF) subsidies will offer free viewing spaces. The most prestigious venue, the Scott Pruitt wing of 21c Museum Hotel in Film Row, will likely require early registration.

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY!

Good luck to Oklahoma teachers!

Categories Oklahoma, Teacher Pay, Teachers
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